Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Is Postmodernism a fad?

This morning in chapel Dr. Richard Oster shared some of the philosophical/cultural fads that beset the church when he was a 20-something in the 70's. Secular Utopianism (utopia can be achieved when religion is removed from the cities), God is Dead, and Situation Ethics (basically a way to justify sin that is pleasurable). His point was that these were philosophies that the church had to deal with - some capitulated, some resisted - and that postmodernity is no different.

My gut reaction was to disagree. I have read and experienced a lot about postmodern Christianity and I think that it is a good and valid expression of the Christian faith. However, I don't want to be rash in coming to my conclusion. Am I, like those in the church before me, attempting to make a cultural molehill into a mountian? Do I proclaim that postmodernity is an epoch when it is nothing more than a fad? I hope I am not so shortsighted.

After consideration here is my (tenative) conclusion: That which we call postmodernity may well be a passing fad. The superficial expressions that are popular will be unpopular in a matter of time. But there has been an epoch shift that is irrevocable: the age of information is upon us. The advent of the internet is as earthshaking as the invention of Gutenberg. People are now learning to think "hyperlinked," that is we perceive of the world as interconnected and comunal rather than linear. The ubiquity of information and relationship available through the internet has begun to fundamentally shift the way the world thinks.